Sigur Rós
Biography
Formed in January, 1994, Sigur Ros are an Icelandic four-piece band who rapidly shot to international success. Although until the release of the single 'Svefn-G-Englar' on FatCat in 1999, the band had remained unreleased outside of their native country, they had previously released 3 albums in Iceland (all on the Smekkleysa label) - 'Von', their debut in 1997; a remix, 'Vonbrig', a year later; and in 1999, the awesome new 'Agaetis Byrjun', which was re-released on FatCat, and was voted as Iceland's 'album of the century'.
A second FatCat 12" arrived in the shape of 'Ny Batteri' in 2000, including two tracks which featured in the soundtrack of the deeply-moving 'Angels Of The Universe' (released by FatCat in autumn 2001), a movie from Oscar-nominated Icelandic film director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. In 2000, we released their album, 'Agaetis Byrjun' which was recorded at Reykjavik's Studio Sasyrland with engineer Ken Thomas, and went on to garner widespread popular and critical acclaim. This was followed up in 2002 by their second album for FatCat, '( )', recorded in the band's new studio in Reykjavik (again with Ken Thomas). Again, this met with almost over whelming critical acclaim, and the fol lowing year saw the band play some of the major summer Europen festivals, including Glastonbury and Roskilde aswell as collaborating with Radiohead for Merce Cunningham's exclusive 'split series' project.
As a live entity, Sigur Ros have completed sell-out tours throughout Europe, the USA and beyond (including tours with Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Labradford, and Radiohead). In 2002, they won the inaugural Virgin Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement (beating off the likes of PJ Harvey, Gorillaz, and the Dandy Warhols), and had 3 tracks included in Cameron Crowe's film, 'Vanilla Sky'.
The video made for their single 'Untitled #1' by acclaimed director Floria Sigismundi won them best video at the European MTV music video awards. '( )' has also recently earned Sigur Ros a double Grammy nomination for best alternative album and best album artwork.
In early 2004, the band parted company from FatCat and signed for EMI. Releasing 'Takk...' in 2005 and 'Me? su? i eyrum vi? spilum endalaust' in 2008.
